Replace Mail Merge Data Source Header for Word docs

Hello, I have a client with several hundred Word Mail Merge documents that we've migrated to a different system. All of these documents have incorrect data header sources and need to be pointed to a new source. I already know how to open the Word docs one by one and replace the header source. But this is very time consuming and is confusing users. I want to know how to programmatically replace the header source on Word docs.

My source document is an Access database .mdb file stored on the C:\ drive. I prefer to point each mail merge to this .mdb file. All data is stored on SQL Server 2008 though, so I would entertain the idea of using other data source types to connect (i.e. DSN's, etc.). Again, I can successfully open and connect to my data source .mdb or using DSN but I need a way to convert a bunch of Word files at once so that I don't have to open and save each one by hand.

Also, when I open a Word file and it can't find the old data source, it pops up with a "Data Link Properties" window. I can then point to my Access database and it connects/merges fine, but for some stupid reason I can't SAVE this to the document. When I save the window just pops up again and when I resave, close and reopen it keeps popping up. I have to manually remove the header/source in order for it to save changes. Very frustrating and time consuming.

This resemble the situation where templates are kept on a server which results in very slow document opening it the server is changed. I usually advise that the old server be reinstated while the paths are changed in the documents. I think that it will be even more essential here.

Can you clarify that you are actually talking about the header source as opposed to the data source? This is quite unusual. The whole thing is problematic, and if you are using a separate header source, it seems to be even more difficult than where the datasource contains the header information.

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goldylamontAuthor Commented: 2010-09-20

All I want to change is the DATA Source to point to a locally stored .mdb (Access) file on the user's computer. But, when I do open a document manually and change the data source; although this works, even if I SAVE the document the new Data source isn't saved. The only way I've found to save the Data source changes is to Remove the Header Source and add a new one with a new Data Source.

Honestly, I don't care if I need to create just a new Data or the whole Header Source. Also, I don't mind using a DSN or perhaps an ODBC connection in the Header/Data source. What I really really need though is a way to change this programmatically for hundreds of documents so that I don't have to do it by hand.

I'm not sure if I mentioned but we use an Access Database to connect to a SQL Server 2008 backend.

Without that patch, programattic opening of a mailmerge main document causes all the mailmerge settings to be dropped., so we lose the SQL, the document type (letters, labels, etc) and the destination (printer, email &c).

With the patch, we can open the document, change the database and save the document.

You do not need to re-instate the old database path(s) as I suggested above.

Are you sure that the Document is a mail merge main document, and has the registry patch been applied?

If so, can you give the precise message details? Thanks

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goldylamontAuthor Commented: 2010-10-05

OK, nix the last comment--I didn't know that I needed to have Word already open for this to work. So, now I get to the point that the code opens the correct document, however in Word even though the registry hack you provided suppresses the popup asking if it's OK to connect to the data source, I still get another popup for "Data Link Properties" that asks me to specify the data link. No matter what I do here any code running after Document.Open runs...

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goldylamontAuthor Commented: 2010-10-05

Yes the registry patch has been supplied and it works--but there are TWO dialogue boxes that I get when opening Merge Docs. The first one is now successfully suppressed by the registry patch. But I still get the 2nd dialogue box, which is the "Data Link Properties" dialogue box. This effectively stops the rest of the code from running.

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goldylamontAuthor Commented: 2010-10-05

I'm using Office 2007 if that makes a difference. At least the code seems to run but yeah I need to get rid of the 2nd dialogue when opening these docs. this sucks